


Occupation

by cupidty11



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Agent Mothman, Aliens, Cheesy, Friendship, Gen, Glasses, Growing Up, Obsession, Oh, Paranormal, Stars, ZADE, ZADF, dib'spov, friends - Freeform, hero - Freeform, life - Freeform, little dib, minor curse words, space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-19
Updated: 2012-03-19
Packaged: 2017-11-02 04:49:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/365146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cupidty11/pseuds/cupidty11
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soft spurts of static, the occasional buzzing of interfering radio signals. He sighed and looked up at the stars, his mind beginning to wander despite his strict discipline, to UFOs and what it would be like to see every star up close in person. Of course he knew that was illogical. </p><p>No one could see every star…but, all the same he wished it was—'ve me the curly fries-ies-ies…' The machine's frequency warned him that this wasn't from nearby at all. It was spoken in some bizarre harsh, clicking language but still seemed to make sense in a way that didn't. The few words were gone as fast as they had come yet, they left a permanent mark on him. </p><p>Suddenly, a new knowledge filled him. Certainty. Excitement. Fear. <br/>"They're coming…"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Occupation

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Nobody Asked](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/7346) by Joe Merl. 



He was 5 years old when he told his teacher that he wanted to be a super hero when he grew up. Flying through the clouds, basking in the sun's rays. Shooting things with laser eyes and lifting heavy stuff with super strength. Reading minds. 

It was fantasy, it was fantastic and even at four his imagination was stretching, breaking beyond what normal kids his age were thinking up. Because when the other pre-skoolers were drawing houses, stick figures and eating glue, Dib was thinking about why the sky was so red when old pictures in books said it was blue. He wanted to know what rain tasted like. Why did people have different eye colors? How did dirt feel between his toes on different parts of his street?

His world had grown so much in such a short time and it only got bigger.

Dib was six when stars stopped being shiny dots in the sky. They were now whole worlds and exploding balls of fire and unlike some children, who might think that was scary and sad…Dib found it all wonderful. During the day, while other kids were playing outside, he scoured the internet for information and pictures about space. He learned all kinds of things, becoming fully engulfed in his very first obsession. Filling his still developing brain with facts and figures. 

Then at night, the stars, as vague as they were popped out just as Dib popped outside, with the telescope he'd gotten for Christmas in his hand. He would spend hours and hours just staring at the big, wide sky until his father called him in for bed. He felt as if he was waiting for something to happen. Unsure of what but, knew he would know when it happened.

For a while, at least until he was a few months away from being seven, Dib wanted to be an astronomer. He father said it was a respectable profession. He just smiled and nodded proudly, with several teeth missing in his grin. Making his father proud was very high up on his to-do list. 

Then Dib discovered NASA Place. He learned just how far they'd gotten in space exploration. In learning about the universe. A lot had been discovered. So much that he suddenly felt helpless. Bored. Dib turned to books, the internet, shoving his mind with as much knowledge as possible. Other children made friends and were just now beginning to think a little more beyond tomorrow.

Dib was shooting forward, leaving his peers behind. And it didn't matter to him that he had no friends, or that he was different or that there was a gaping hole where a mother would be because he had knowledge and the deep seated feeling that he was meant for something great.

He was eight months away from his tenth birthday when he saw his first ghost. Dib's father wasn't home often and Gaz was usually left in the care of a nanny who slept more hours than she was awake. So, the little boy had wandered. Taking a step outside into the afternoon, summer heat and almost recoiling to head back inside. He'd been getting headaches lately and sometimes he had trouble seeing things. 

However, something screamed at him to just go. To just walk and explore. Curiosity was his largest virtue, taking him down the drive way, tons of side walk to the other side of town that they drove by every time they went to somewhere out of the city. It was old and creaky. Many buildings abandoned or drawn on with sharp scribbles that Dib knew signified gangs. He didn't yet know what that meant, but it seemed ominous so he kept a look out. He stepped over litter, bottles and wrappers with their labels long destroyed. 

Many buildings had been abandoned for years, molding and festering with long forgotten memories and broken windows. It was beginning to get chilly as the sun went down, making the boy's young body shiver. Maybe some kids would've had the sense to be scared at having wandered so far and in such unfamiliar territory. 

Dib was a bit nervous, biting his bottom lip but, kept going, pulled by an unseen tug forward. And when there was the continuous slamming of a broken hinged wooden door, he took the opportunity to slip inside the darkened building with dust motes and evening sun streaming into the surprisingly intact windows. It was warm here. Sheltered from the slight wind that had cut through his light blue jacket. 

Curious gold eyes wandered over everything in the place, trying to understand where it was he was standing; tombs of books, an apparent checkout counter, broken lamps. An old library. 

He didn't quite think about the obvious question; why was this place intact when so many other buildings were ransacked and destroyed, ripped of their parts and inhabited by vermin? 

Oblivious and slightly enchanted, Dib strode over to a big shelf and ran his hands over the dusty volumes, taking in their different shades, feels and shapes. He rubbed away at the thick dust to see some of the tittles. He smiled when he found a huge, leather bound book simply labeled, 'The Stars'. 

With a lot of effort, huffing and grunting, Dib managed to get the hefty book off the shelf, nearly falling over but managing to drag it over to a nearby table which was also piled with the stories, all in various stages of open and close as if someone had left them like that. 

Dib flipped open the book, causing a little wave of dust to go exploding across the table and it seemed to start a minor tsunami of the stuff. Without warning, the little boy sneezed, causing an even bigger one. He squeezed his eyes shut to fend off the evil motes, cracking them open and—freezing.

Across from him, there sat a little old lady. Skin pale, wrinkly and thin like paper. Her features seemed to be drawn on with ink, they were so dark. Dib's eye widened to the size of small dinner plates, a little bubble of fear building in his chest. 

She watched him with eyes made out of stories, hands pressed against the books on the table…almost protectively. Dust seemed to float through her, around her, to her…as if she was made up of the stuff.

The longer they stood in the abandoned library, their stare never breaking, the more that Dib felt the fear begin to melt. It floated away completely when she nodded at him, her eyes understanding that he wasn't like the others who had come to loot and destroy the books for fires or just to feel the paper tear. He respected the knowledge and this boy was good. 

When Dib blinked she was gone. He blinked a few more times to make sure she had truly disappeared. In the woman's place were goose bumps, shivers and the slowly growing fire in his veins. A ghost. He'd seen a ghost. He knew it instinctively. And it hadn't frightened him as much as it had fascinated. 

On Dib's tenth birthday, he blew out the candles on his star shaped cake and wished to be able to be a Paranormal Investigator. The internet had told him a lot about ghosts. And Bigfoot. Yetis. Vampires, monsters, demons, genies, banshees, witches, trolls, chupacabras, and UFOs. Aliens. 

This was a whole new world. The Supernatural. Stuff that no one had discovered yet. Never proved. And there was so much work to do. So much that Dib could do. It was his calling. 

On May 10th, he caught and rid a house of a poltergeist. The family paid him a nice reward that he used to buy more supplies but, also a nearly too big for him, leather trench coat that had giant pockets perfect for fitting in ninja tools, and more importantly it made him look cool.

From then on, he stalked big-feet, chased after any lead on the strange. He was learning on the job. Holy water and salt. Voo-doo, wizardry. A whole new level of knowledge and Dib soaked it up like a sponge. That same year he got his first pair of glasses. A few days later he broke them, flying on the back of a giant man-eating moth. From then on it was a constant battle to keep them intact for longer than a few weeks.

It was July 19th when he tried to tell his father that he'd seen a Vampire lurking outside their house and it would be best for them to clear out until Dib could take care of the situation with a bit of holy water, and a couple of crosses. Membrane laughed, hands on his belly, goggled turned up at the ceiling's florescent lights. 

"You must've gotten your sense of humor from me!" The professor roared, wiping a tear from under his plastic goggles before sending Dib on his way to bed. The boy was confused, wondering if there had been some sort of mistake. He took care of the Vampire, sending it on its way to continue this tomorrow night before lying down in his bed, only to lay awake thinking about what had happened. He figured it was a fluke and that Membrane would come around sooner or later.

A few days later, Zombies were chasing him down the street. Dib gasped for breath as he slammed the back door closed, bared it with a kitchen chair and raced down the stairs to tell his father he needed help with removing their heads and spilling salt on the bodies.

"Not now, Son. I'm busy with this plastic hedgehog experiment. We'll play later." Membrane dismissed his child with a wave and a smile. Dib stood in the doorway of the basement laboratory, face crestfallen. There was a loud bang and a shatter from upstairs. No time!

He destroyed the Zombies without any help but, he was covered in ectoplasm which was smelly and slimy. He washed himself off, absent mindedly. His father hadn't believed him.  
Twice now. Dib rolled over on his side and hardly slept a wink the whole night, thinking and worrying that it could become a running pattern that could potentially doom him.

He shook himself of the morbid thoughts. Nonsense. His father was a logical man. Eventually, Membrane would realize what was going on, even if Dib had to force him to see reason. With that goal in mind, the boy drifted to sleep dreaming of the Loch Ness Monster giving him a ride on its friendly, firm back.

On August 12th, Dib entered 5th grade and learned that Hell did indeed exist on Earth. To be more precise it existed in classroom 720 with approximately 23 other kids and a teacher that was obviously not human. Hell was stained walls, cramped hallways, chewed bubble gum on the bottom of scratched up desks that wobbled precariously and out dated text books.

Hell was cafeteria food that he'd never noticed was this bad until now. Hell was the smell of too much body spray, desperation and just now firing hormones. But, mostly Hell was made of 980 other kids who seemed to live to make his life miserable.

At first Dib attempted to blend in. But, it was the beginning of those cruel years. When kids become nothing more than food eating, walking blobs of criticism and doubts. He'd dealt with bullying before. A few wedgies here, some mean names there. 

But, this…this was downright ridiculous. He was shoved into lockers, shoved face first into toilets and called more names than he'd even known were possible. A few times, he'd found some paranormal things at his skool. He'd go to his peers for support and found nothing. It frustrated him at the same time that it didn't surprise him. 

Dib knew it was because of his glasses, how skinny he was, how pale and weak looking he seemed. He knew it was because he obviously didn't fit in. But, that was just how he was. It was unchangeable and they were the ones who needed to learn a few things. So, he just sighed and took the occasional abuse, knowing that the people who picked on him would do one of two things;

One, use him as their target of frustration, fear and self doubt. But, slowly ever so slowly becoming themselves and feeling less inclined to treat someone beneath them. In a few years time, they would feel bad but, probably never apologize.

Or two…continue to be a bully for the rest of their life because of never ending anger, insecurity and a horrible home life. 

Dib really hoped that all of them fell under the former.

Half way into the Skool Year, he was outside on his roof, doing what he always did on Saturday nights; listening for strange transmissions and any sign of alien life. This was the 74th Saturday he'd done this and he half expected to hear nothing but, static as he did all the times before. Of course his other half just KNEW that tonight was special….just like all the times before. 

Soft spurts of static, the occasional buzzing of interfering radio signals. He sighed and looked up at the stars, his mind beginning to wander despite his strict discipline, to UFOs and what it would be like to see every star up close in person. Of course he knew that was illogical. 

No one could see every star…but, all the same he wished it was—'ve me the curly fries-ies-ies…' The machine's frequency warned him that this wasn't from nearby at all. It was spoken in some bizarre harsh, clicking language but still seemed to make sense in a way that didn't. The few words were gone as fast as they had come yet, they left a permanent mark on him. 

Suddenly, a new knowledge filled him. Certainty. Excitement. Fear.   
"They're coming…" A smile stretched its way across his face before he went to tell his family in hopes of any support. 

For six months, Dib waited. He was unsure of what he was waiting for exactly. Some sign. Some small clue that they were close or here. What would he find when they did come? Would they be friendly? Or evil? Humanoid in appearance or blobs? E.T.? Or Aliens? He tortured himself with the possibilities, the wondering.

Then the waiting was done because on a Wednesday in the middle of their final quarter of 5th grade, a new face waited at the front of the room. And that face was green. That tipped him off immediately. Then the slightly too large eyes and they were so shiny.

Unnaturally so. Obviously contacts. The hair was clearly a wig, with the dry, thin strands that seemed to stay in place despite the new kid's rapid movements. And his teeth were like that of a zipper.

It was fascinating. Only, once Dib got over the first few seconds of shock and wonder something else hit him; the alien's cocky smile, the weird pink clothes he wore, the way he stood and spoke as if speaking to monkies or children. A strong vibe of energy; recklessness, determination, arrogance, and menace…

This alien was not friend. He was foe. 

Before he was even aware of it, Dib was speaking and moving. Feeling jittery and scared. These kids must know. They have to know. Just look at him! So fake. An alien who wants to destroy us all and if he came from space, from an advanced race who knows what kind of powers and technology he has. It could end the world in days. Maybe hours. 

And when they refused to see what was so clearly in front of them, when Zim glared back at him, their eyes connected and something fused, something went off in his soul, a line of destiny was fulfilled and he knew what he not only wanted to be but, needed to be.

The savior of Earth. 

It was so clear to him that it might as well be written in blood. Saving the planet and annihilating this new threat for his planet, for his fellow humans. This is what he'd been preparing for his entire life.

There was a high speed chase, the kind you only see in movies and Dib now knew where the alien had set up base. The sleep cuffs were only minorly useful but, he was sure they would prove to be more so in the future. That was…after he got a new pair. The alien's weird gnome thing had incinerated them.

That night he did more research and contacted an agency that seemed promising. The Swollen Eyeball network. Many other paranormal investigators spoke about them in the darkest forums and through secret codes. They agreed to take him on as an agent despite his age because of everything he'd managed to accomplish so far.

After some consideration, he decided to name himself Agent Mothman after one of the first cases that had helped him create a reputation in this business. 

The months following the alien's arrival were hectic, unruly, challenging and without a doubt some of the best and worst of his entire life. 

Dib ran and ran and ran after that monster. Through the streets, in buildings, at night and during the day. Through sun and occasionally the rain. He forced himself to grow stronger and stay up later so he could take notes.

The boy was learning about sacrifice; his dinner for the times when he was out saving the world, cold and left sitting on the table for hours. Sleeping time was replaced with hiding in bushes to try and get a glimpse of the alien freak. His own skin when it scraped and bled against the pavement, from his nose when it broke for the first time. Soon new scars began to show themselves against pale, young skin. War marks, battle scars that began to tell a story, threading itself through flesh and years.

Years like drops of water in a pond as they grew bigger the more there were. Time slipping through the cracks of childhood and the younger elementary days to bring Dib past adolescent times. Everyone else worried about girls; he worried about the alien's newest evil plan. Everyone else was freaking out about sports and grades; he just wanted to catch some sleep before he was out again, hunting and fighting the paranormal.

Fighting Zim became an obsession unlike any he'd ever encountered before and it was as dark as they got, sometime feeling as if it could drive him to madness. Of course when a boy spends as much time interested in another 'boy' people began to get the wrong idea, connecting two and two to get 'faggot', 'freak' and 'crazy'. They said that Dib loved the green kid. They said he was an abomination.

Dib found it all to be, frankly, ridiculous. They hated each other with a fiery passion that extended beyond what any of the other kids could comprehend. There was no affection lost between the two of them although he sometimes woke up in the middle of the night with dreams.

Dreams that were nightmares with flashing teeth and bloody bodies. Dreams that made him embarrassed and red cheeked for days on end. And dreams that were actually dreams; they were kind and featured Zim, both of them as something akin to friends. They didn't hurt each other, but still argued. It was startling to him just how much he sometimes yearned for something close to a friend. Was apparently so desperate that he was imagining Zim, his mortal nemesis, as one.

But, aside from dreams, Zim and Dib suffered from the worst kind of ailment; obsession. In ways it was worse than love, worse than lust, loss, hate and greed. Like love it made you stay up at night, wandering the streets, a victim of your own heart beat. Like love you fell into it, head first into quick sand.

Love was like rain; it turned to ice, or it disappeared. Now you see it, now you couldn't, for the life of you, begin to find it, no matter how hard you searched. Love evaporated with time, molded, broke and took advantage of everything around it. 

Obsession was realer; it hurt like a splinter, festering and oozing, like a cut that kept bleeding. A rock in your shoe, a pin in your bottom. It didn't go away in the blink of an eye. An impromptu battle out on the hot summer pavement, a notebook of nasty notes passed back and forth, not so discreetly across the classroom. 

Obsession tasted bitter and it tasted like something that Dib knew perfectly well. He'd known it his whole life; it settled and lurked. It stayed with you no matter what.

And one day Dib woke up and he was 19 years old, living in his childhood home, in his childhood room and fighting the same enemy that had taunted him his whole life. His feet could hang off the side of the bed, and childish drawings still covered the blue walls. It was a wakeup call, to the like of cold water being thrown on him.

It propelled him out of his bed, his room, his house and down the street toward the little green base he knew so well he practically lived there part time. The lawn gnomes followed the teenager with their large, metal eyes which he ignored in favor of knocking once before throwing the Male Restroom door open, and striding inside.

Gir squealed manically at his arrival, running about, splashing some sort of green substance everywhere that Dib preferred not to know the origins of. 

"GIR!" The familiar voice barked from across the room, halting the tiny robot in its tracks, eyes turning red for a millisecond before falling over in a heap of metal and goop. Dib merely raised an eyebrow before turning to his nemesis who was glaring down at the android before focusing that same expression on him. "And what do you think you're doing here? And this early? Without any warning?! Do you humans have any idea of common courtesy? Oh wait, I forgot, you're humans."

Dib's mouth kicked up in a wry grin, despite the unease that was still vibrating his very core. "You got me there, Space-Boy." Zim sniffed very snobbishly before turning on his heel and stalking off back in the direction he had come from. 

"Well, now that you're here you can put your filthy limbs to good use and assist me." The human rolled his eyes. It wasn't as if he ended up helping every single day anyway. It had pretty much been the same for about five years now. Kind of like a temporary truce. Dib followed anyway, not daring say anything because he knew how moody Zim got when it was hot outside. 

Inside the elevator was cool and the further they got into the depth of Zim's labs the cooler it got. "So what do you need help with this time, Genius?" Dib asked, good naturedly, hands in his pockets as he followed the alien menace into the dark laboratory. Half a decade ago he wouldn't have dared step foot in here without a light or a weapon. Now, the area was familiar and putting on goggles, along with a lab coat was second nature. 

"I don't need your help…I just need assistance."

"Uh-huh. SO, what do you need assisting with?" Dib asked plaintively, hands on hips as he surveyed the room, wondering what it could be. Zim was standing by the furthest lab table so the human followed and looked at what his nemesis was doing. 

"Well, you know how Zim came up with that idea for the molecular hard drive that would allow me to store some PAK information in a place that wouldn't always need guarding on my back?"

"Funny. I seem to remember me coming up with that id—"

"Sh, sh, sh, sh. Dib-thing let me speak."

Dib listened fairly quiet as the irken talked, occasionally interrupting to add a rude comment or a suggestion until they finally got down to business, working and improving in companionable silence. They were working together. Just as they had been for nearly five years now. It had been a battle to the death, involving space-travel, other alien species and both of them nearly dying. 

Dib had seen space. Dib had went above and beyond the goals he'd set for himself. Dib had used his brain, his strength and humanity to outsmart many enemies, none of which had been Zim. Though for a while even that had been doubtful. 

In the end, after all the blood, the fighting, the violence and intergalactic travel…Zim had saved him. Dib had saved Zim. And they'd fought together using tactics they'd learned from the other to defeat a common enemy. 

The irken had learned many hard truths from his people that for a while made Dib worried for the alien's health and state of mind but, eventually he'd come back to school and they had resumed their daily schedule only this time is was different; there was no threat of danger, nothing between them that would keep them fighting. No hatred. No love. No obsession. 

But, they'd somehow still gravitated toward each other. Maybe it was all the years they'd already invested in each other's company. Maybe it was because Dib had seen Zim spill his own blood to save his sorry ass and in return the human had returned the favor not too much later. But, whatever it was they only had one thing connecting them anymore; understanding. 

And one day they'd ended up at the same lunch table, talking awkwardly. They ended up laughing about stupid things, the past, the future. They ended up graduating together and in the picture they were both smiling, standing together. Like friends might…

"Hand me the thing a-ma-bob." Zim commanded hand waving about. The human obliged, picking up the old tool and placing it in his hand. "Um…thank you." Dib didn't respond but, for a small, nearly imperceptible smile, before returning to his work and musings. 

In the end Dib had done everything he wanted to do; he'd fought off bad guys and flown among the stars. Seen everything from ghosts and goblins to aliens and bigfoot. And despite the odds, the doubt from his peers, his father and himself he had saved the world, he'd been a hero. 

Dib's tounge stuck out as he twisted a screw into its socket, humming a bit along to an invisible tune. "Stop that. You sound like an idiot." Zim mumbled from across the room. The human smirked, waggling his middle finger in the alien's direction. 

"You're an idiot." He replied, gleefully. This was normal. It was fun. It was friendly.

"Oh yeah!?" Zim yelled, hands on his hips, the latest project forgotten. 

The filthy human's grin only grew wider. "Yep. No doubt. 100% moron." 

"Well, your head is the size of a tractor!" 

"A tractor?"

"Yes a tractor! Or perhaps a jet plane!"

"Now you're just being ridiculous."

"Well, maybe if you did something to try and stop it from growing—"

"It hasn't grown!" Dib shouted." You need to get your bug eyes checked or something!"

"My eyes are perfect, thank you!"

"You're welcome!"

Back and forth. Back and forth. They could go on like this for hours. And they have before. Hours and sometimes days. Running arguments have been known to take weeks to finally die out. Sometimes they end up wrestling or snap and break out laughing. 

They can finish their work and go outside, on the roof to watch the stars. They can be super heroes or astrologists. Dib can show Zim the ropes of paranormal investigating. 

But, none of that really matters anymore because Dib doesn't need to be anything else. He's already found the one thing he's really good at in the midst of all the confusion, hate, obsession and doubt. Unexpected and nessacary. 

Dib was Zim's friend and that was the most important thing he'd ever done.

**Author's Note:**

> Where to start?  
> I was inspired by this->http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5107593/1/Nobody_Asked  
>  **Nobody Asked** by JoeMerl  
>  He just wrote Dib so beautifully...I had to give it a go. 
> 
> I used a quote from The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman for the whole 'Obsession is like love but better' bit. With some of my own flair to make it more applicable here. 
> 
> I've been working on this for a week or so now and you're guys comments finally, got me to finish it. It might be rather gooey and weird but, I hope you like it.  
> One of my favorite one shot's I've done before.
> 
>  
> 
> Also, I love Dib. He's my favorite character um, ever. And that's saying alot. 
> 
> I don't own Invader Zim.


End file.
